02/13/2001

Betty Gilson
http://www.artistrue.com
ENC 1102
Once Upon a Time
By Gabriel Okara
Interpreting Poetry
Revision

“Once Upon a Time” is an emotional poem about the story of a grown up man—who

once was an innocent child.

His adult world has lost the charm of his childhood years. The poet describes how the

process of growing up transforms the innocence of childhood. After entering the adult

world, the young adults will gradually forget how to “laugh with their hearts.”

While growing up, the cold world intimidated our main character. He used to sense

people’s insincerity and their superficial laughs, because “they only laugh[ed] with their

teeth,/while their ice-block-cold eyes/search[ed] behind [his] shadow” (624).

It is a vicious circle: once someone has entered the adult world, he will change—then

change others. Our character will learn how to say things that he doesn’t really mean: “I

have also learned to say, “Goodbye,”/when I mean “Goodriddance”;/to say “Glad to meet

you,”/without being glad; and to say “It’s been/nice talking to you,” after being bored”

(625).
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Like everyone else, our main character was forced to grow up—in order to adapt to the

adult world: “I have learned to wear many faces/like dresses—homeface,/officeface,

streetface, hostface, cock-/tail face, with all their conforming smiles/like a fixed portrait

smile” (624).

In this selfish world, our character learned how to adapt; he adapted a little too well. He

now can play the adult role without any problem.

However, once he became a parent, parenthood seems to have helped him to remember

the innocent world of his childhood. Because of his son, he wants to re-learn how to be

sincere. His son holds the key to this old, forgotten world.

What a wonderful poem! It presents in such a simple manner, such a complicated subject:

the pain of growing up, and the loss of innocence.

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Works Cited

Okara, Gabriel. “Once Upon a Time.” Angles of Vision: Reading, Writing, and the Study

of Literature. Eds. Arthur W. Biddle, and Toby Fulwiler. New York: McGraw-

Hill, Inc., 1992. 624-625.